Part of a larger worldwide problem of drugs made unaffordable thanks to patent monopolies.

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Cancer patients, clinicians, and campaigners have called on the UK health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, to allow the local manufacture or import of low-cost versions of a patented £90,000-a-year breast cancer drug that has been dropped by the NHS because of its high price.

Because the drug (T­DM1, sold under the brand name Kadcyla by the pharmaceutical giant Roche) is patented, that would normally prevent the manufacture of cheaper, generic versions made by other manufacturers. However, under the Patents Act 1977, the UK government has the power to override patent monopolies in certain circumstances, which is what the Coalition for Affordable T­DM1 is asking Hunt to do. It says that "one company has already indicated a willingness to manufacture T­DM1 in the UK, if a compulsory licence on the patents is issued for local production."

Since patents are state-approved monopolies, Roche has been able to demand extremely high prices, despite repeated requests by the UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), which provides advice on which drugs whould be used by the NHS, to make Kadcyla affordable. Roche has refused to do that, so Kadcyla will not be available on the NHS to new patients with advanced breast cancer starting from November, The Guardian reports.

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In addition, NHS England dropped it from the list of treatments that the Cancer Drugs Fund is willing to re-imburse for the same reason. (The Cancer Drugs Fund was initially set up to pay for drugs that NICE says are too expensive to offer.) Breast Cancer Now, the UK's largest breast cancer charity, has launched a petition asking Roche to reduce the cost of Kadcyla so that it could remain on the Cancer Drugs Fund list and thus be made available to the women who could benefit from it.

The unaffordable cost of drugs is a growing problem worldwide. Recently, Turing Pharmaceuticals raised the price of Daraprim, a 62-year-old treatment for a dangerous parasitic infection, from $13.50 (£9) per pill to $750 (£500) per pill. After widespread condemnation, the company's chief executive officer, Martin Shkreli, said he would reduce the price to make it "affordable," although no details have been provided on what that will mean. Meanwhile, the Canadian government wants to reduce the cost of a drug that can treat, but not cure, two rare blood diseases from its current level of around £330,000 per year—something the US manufacturer is trying to prevent using legal action.